Chapter 4

During work, Song Wen was known for being diligent. Now that he was here, he immediately entered work mode. He walked to the front, habitually rolled up his sleeves until his elbows were exposed, revealing a section of strong and slender forearm. He looked serious and said, “Let’s begin. Protect the crime scene.”

Although they already knew that the suspect was very likely not inside the house, Fu Linjiang and Lao Jia still took their guns and rushed into the house. Afterward, they signaled that it was clear, and the others followed in a single file. The security guard had already checked and left footprints everywhere. Xu Yao walked in, frowned slightly, and it seemed there were not many effective traces left in the room.

The house was on the sixth floor, a moderate height. It could be reached by both elevator and by bravely taking the stairs. The windows were tightly locked, and there were no signs of intrusion from the outside. The layout was currently popular, with around a hundred square meters, two bedrooms, one living room, two bathrooms, and one kitchen. The house was well-lit with windows facing north and south, but at the moment, the curtains were tightly drawn. The entire room had few pieces of furniture. Due to previous people entering the scene, there were some messy footprints left in the living room. The corpse was in the slightly larger guest bathroom.

Song Wen and Fu Linjiang went to the bathroom first, where the property staff had discovered the dismembered corpse.

As they entered the bathroom, both of them froze simultaneously. They had seen many crime scenes, but this was the first time they had seen something so bizarre. The small bathroom was very neatly arranged, with not much blood or traces.

In the corner of the bathroom, in the luxurious bathtub, there was a headless male corpse soaking. The limbs were severed and incomplete, and the body had been divided into several parts. It was evident that the water had been changed many times, and almost all the blood from the corpse had been drained. The entire body looked like meat being marinated in water, emitting a faint smell. Through the semi-transparent water, you could still see the condition of the body inside. The torso of the body had already been opened, and the organs inside, along with the ribs in front of the chest, had disappeared completely, leaving the body exposed pitifully to everyone.

Lao Jia and Zhu Xiao set up a cordon outside, while Xu Yao started collecting various traces. Lin Xiuran first went to the kitchen and looked at the pots and utensils on the stove. There was a colander in the pot, and only some meat soup remained. After glancing at it, he also entered the bathroom calmly and took a glance at the dismembered corpse lying in the bathtub.

Following closely, Lao Jia also came in. He looked at the corpse, then lowered his head to look at a device placed in the corner against the wall. He reached over and fiddled with it, “What the hell, isn’t this a juicer?”

Lin Xiuran turned his head and glanced, saying, “If my guess is correct, his internal organs were ground up by this juicer and flushed into the toilet. No wonder the people downstairs heard water running upstairs all night.”

Lao Jia looked at the device with a blade in his hand, and there were still some red and yellow chunks remaining underneath. There were also some viscous, reddish remnants of tissue at the bottom of the device. The smell of this thing was much heavier than that of the corpse, emitting a strong fishy odor.

Having understood what this thing was, Lao Jia put it down, retching and rushing toward the toilet. However, he was pulled away by Song Wen, “Go vomit outside. Don’t destroy the crime scene.”

Covering his mouth, Lao Jia rushed out. Well-intentioned Xu Yao handed him a large evidence bag. Lao Jia vomited a few times before catching his breath and said, “In my whole life, I’ve never seen such a disgusting and perverted crime scene.”

Lin Xiuran calmly remarked, “Very disgusting? It doesn’t compare to the last giant spectacle.” After saying that, he turned his head to look at the calm-looking Lu Siyu, recording on his notebook, “You’ve been a senior detective for many years, but you can’t compare to a newcomer.”

Xu Yao explained, “I just estimate that he won’t order his favorite watermelon juice at the next gathering.”

With one sentence, Lao Jia retched several times again.

“The condition of the skin doesn’t seem right.” Song Wen leaned in to take a look at the body in the water. The corpse in the bathtub was headless, limbs scattered. At this moment, without a soul, under the white light of the bathroom, it looked like a pile of whitening flesh.

Song Wen had been to many crime scenes and gained some basic knowledge. The skin had begun to rot. Since the blood had been drained long ago, there were no lividity marks. However, the way this body decayed was somewhat different from the common corpses soaked in water. Most of the bodies they encountered that were soaked in water were drowned or thrown into the water. This corpse was obviously different.

Lin Xiuran looked at the traces on the body and analyzed calmly, “The killer should have changed the water in the tub several times, possibly alternating between hot and cold, and used ice a few times.”

Hearing this, Lao Jia trembled, “It’s already so disgusting, and he still changed the water? Is he raising goldfish?”

“Changing the water is like washing meat repeatedly before making soup. By losing blood, the soup will have a much less fishy smell.” Lin Xiuran spoke and then looked at the body, making a basic judgment, “The bathroom is the main scene of dismemberment. The killer soaked the body in water, then added ice. After that, the killer chopped and separated the flesh and bones, ground the internal organs in a juicer, and stewed some ribs in a pressure cooker.” After saying that, he moved the body a bit to confirm that there were no missing organs underneath, “No head here.”

Fu Linjiang asked, “Did the killer cook and throw away the head and bones together?”

Song Wen said, “You guys should look carefully again. The head is easier to recognize, and maybe it hasn’t been thrown away yet.”

The current tenant of the house couldn’t be reached, making it difficult to confirm the identity of the corpse. The head was undoubtedly the key to confirming the identity of the corpse. In the previous dismemberment cases, the head was generally difficult to deal with and was often left until the end.

After speaking, Song Wen went to the bedroom. The bed in the bedroom was a bit messy, and it was unclear if it was the usual state or if someone had slept in it before. Zhu Xiao helped set up the police cordon, and the forensic expert Cheng Xiaobing took out an ultraviolet lamp to search for bloodstains in the room. When Song Wen looked up, he saw Lu Siyu. At this moment, Lu Siyu had already finished documenting the situation in the bathroom. He turned and walked through the room, holding a notebook, appearing like a student casually strolling through an art exhibition, moving leisurely.

Song Wen was about to call him and remind him not to disturb the crime scene when he saw Lu Siyu walking to the refrigerator. He slightly tilted his head, looked up, and then extended the gloved hand to open the freezer door.

It seemed like a completely unconscious action, but Song Wen’s gaze, following his eyes, was stunned. In the double-door refrigerator freezer, all the partitions had been removed, and inside was a human head tightly wrapped in plastic wrap.

“The head is over here!” Song Wen didn’t care about anything else, stood up directly, and walked over. Upon hearing him speak, Lin Xiuran also walked towards the kitchen.

However, Lu Siyu remained indifferent, as if he had known that the head would be there and was just casually opening it. He saw Song Wen and Lin Xiuran approaching, naturally stepped aside, and then reached out to fiddle with a block-shaped object in another compartment of the refrigerator. That thing was hard and cold, also wrapped in plastic wrap, resembling a frozen purple sweet potato.

Lao Jia, who had caught his breath, walked over and glanced, asking, “What is this?”

Lu Siyu, with a calm expression, poked at the object and, feeling its softness, said, “Probably the deceased’s genitalia.”

With just one sentence, Lao Jia almost vomited again.

After observing the severed head, Song Wen turned his head and frowned at this new colleague in his team. At this moment, Lu Siyu was bowing down to record, not noticing Song Wen’s gaze.

Song Wen had seen countless crime scenes, and newcomers, whether forensic experts or police officers, had also seen many. With good observational skills, even subtle expressions couldn’t escape his keen eyes. Generally, even if a new person didn’t lose composure, the fear of facing a corpse would still unconsciously reveal itself through their eyes, movements, tone, and subtle expressions.

However, the person in front of him maintained a routine expression, extremely calm, and even a bit…

The feeling was too subtle; Song Wen didn’t know how to describe that expression.

He didn’t know if Lu Siyu had exceptionally strong psychological resilience or if his reflex arc was longer than others…

Or maybe, because he studied forensic science… and these things, he had long been accustomed to?

After finding the head, other investigation work proceeded smoothly. More and more clues were discovered at the crime scene, and progress was made in terms of physical evidence, including finding the deceased’s car keys, wallet, and phone. In the bedroom’s trash can, they also found a used condom. Zhu Xiao obtained more information from the exchange with the property management.

Lin Xiuran and his assistant first used a body bag to pick up the dismembered limbs of the body, preparing to transport them back to the newly built autopsy room at the police station and then to the morgue’s cold storage.

When everything here was almost cleaned up, Lin Xiuran summarized for Song Wen, “Preliminary estimate, the time of death was probably the day before yesterday. Since the body was soaked in ice water for a period, the degree of decomposition is not high. The internal organs of the body have all been removed, making it impossible to determine the exact time of death based on stomach contents. Many cooked bones and meat have not been found yet, and other information awaits further autopsy.”

Xu Yao added a few sentences, “Due to the early entry of security personnel, the crime scene was compromised, and not many valid traces were found. Most of the bloodstains were left in the bathroom, making it impossible to determine if it was the primary crime scene.” She spoke with a hint of helplessness, squatting on the ground, thinking for a moment, and then added, “I suspect the killer wore gloves, and judging from the traces, they should be medical latex gloves.” These gloves were relatively thin, isolating bloodstains and blocking fingerprints without affecting the sense of touch, but they did bring some difficulty to the investigation work.

Zhu Xiao explained the identity of the deceased, “The deceased’s name is Lin Zhenghua, 39 years old, a senior operations director at an IT company. I finally contacted the original tenant who signed the contract with the landlord. According to him, he initially signed the lease for three years to get a lower rent. Later, he transferred it to a friend, Lin Zhenghua, and the rent increased by a few hundred each month. Since the rent was still transferred through him, the landlord never realized that the tenant had changed without his knowledge.”

Song Wen lowered his head and asked, “What was the family situation of the deceased?”

“His father has passed away, his mother is still alive, he had a wife, and a fifteen-year-old son.”

“Notify the family and see if the family has an alibi for the time of the crime. However, why didn’t they report him missing after so many days?” Song Wen frowned slightly, “Is the original tenant a suspect?”

“The original tenant has been participating in a company’s closed-team building these past few days, so he hasn’t answered any calls. There is enough evidence to prove he was not present.”

Fu Linjiang leaned in with a regretful expression, “This landlord is really unlucky. A perfectly good house turned into a crime scene.”

The entire body hadn’t been found yet, and the investigation work couldn’t conclude. Song Wen raised his head and asked Fu Linjiang, “Where do you think the remaining parts of the body might have been disposed of?”

Fu Linjiang replied, “Currently, there are no clues. We can only check the nearby garbage dumps and wastelands, but the difficulty is quite high…” After stewing for a while, the body becomes more difficult to distinguish, and finding dismembered remains near the scene is like finding a needle in a haystack.

Hearing this, Lu Siyu, who had been busy recording on the side, suddenly looked up and whispered a few words, “Blue garbage bags.”

This time, the reaction was not slow.

Song Wen was just about to mention this point when he glanced at Lu Siyu and picked up on what he said, “In the kitchen, there are still some unused thick blue plastic bags. If nothing unexpected happened, the killer used these bags to wrap the body parts. They are the kind of bright blue bags with plastic ropes, which should be relatively easy to distinguish.” With that said, he turned to instruct Fu Linjiang, “Linjiang, call the bureau and have them bring two police dogs to help search.” In such situations, the sense of smell of police dogs is much more sensitive than humans.

At this moment, the security department staff came over and whispered to Zhu Xiao. After listening, Zhu Xiao came to report, “In this community garage, there is one parking space for each apartment. According to the records, the deceased’s car was parked in the community garage at 8:32 PM the night before last and hasn’t left since.”

Song Wen asked, “What about the community surveillance video? Can’t monitor the flow of people?”

The security personnel looked embarrassed upon hearing this, and Zhu Xiao touched his nose with a helpless expression, “Captain Song, you also know that the surveillance in these communities is just for show. There are four entrances in total, with multiple broken cameras, and there are significant blind spots. Even if we retrieve the surveillance, it’s not very valuable.”

“What about the elevator surveillance?”

“It’s been broken for a long time…”

“Even so, a copy should be obtained according to the procedure,” Song Wen snorted, a hint of sarcasm in his voice, “People may not be monitored, but cars are clearly visible.”

Zhu Xiao murmured quietly, “Isn’t this just to collect parking fees?”

These residential communities are like this. Once they are associated with income and property fees, they become extremely attentive, while other issues that can be overlooked are neglected. In such communities, despite having well-installed facilities, due to low occupancy rates, personnel often resort to cutting corners to save costs.

In these few sentences, Lu Siyu walked over to Fu Linjiang. Song Wen turned to him and called, “Hey, Lu Siyu, have you recorded everything?”

Suddenly being called, Lu Siyu turned his head, holding the car keys he had just taken from Fu Linjiang. Fu Linjiang couldn’t stand it and defended Lu Siyu, “Captain Song, he’s working on the case; you have to let people drink water and catch their breath, right? His cup and bag are in the car; he’s just going to get them.”

Song Wen waved his hand, “Go quickly and come back quickly.”

Lu Siyu came out from the entrance, hesitated for a moment at the elevator, and then took the emergency exit down to the garage. He retrieved his water bottle and a black backpack from the police car. On the other side of the garage, Xu Yao and Cheng Xiaobing were collecting evidence from a black SUV. Xu Yao used a small brush to dust for fingerprints, while Cheng Xiaobing took photos. Lu Siyu walked over, addressing Xu Yao as “Sister Xu.” Xu Yao turned her head and greeted him.

Lu Siyu took back his cup, unscrewed it, took a sip, and didn’t rush to leave. Instead, he watched for a while on the side. It was the victim’s car, parked closer to the corridor than where they were. Lu Siyu stood by for a few minutes, then walked to the trunk, opened it, and checked inside. Cheng Xiaobing had a good impression of this new colleague and, at this moment, observed Lu Siyu staring into space with a frowning and concentrated expression. Yet, there was a single strand of hair sticking up like an antenna on his head.

Seeing that Lu Siyu was completely unaware of this, Cheng Xiaobing, raising her camera, discreetly took a photo of him. The flash of the camera suddenly lit up in the dimly lit garage, and only then did Lu Siyu notice he was being photographed. He closed the trunk with a side glance, walked to the exit, and looked at the location of the garage surveillance before turning and going upstairs.

Various markings had already been made on the scene upstairs. According to regulations, the scene would be preserved for another week to ten days before further cleaning could be carried out. Song Wen was preparing to finish and move downstairs when he saw Lu Siyu approaching, asking him, “Captain Song, can I use the microwave here to heat up my lunch?”

Song Wen blinked and looked at Lu Siyu. His motto was that rules are dead, but people are alive. However, even so, he felt that this was a bit too rule-breaking. It was the first time he had seen a detective heating up lunch next to a pot of stewed body parts. What if something spilled and damaged the scene? Song Wen was about to reprimand him when he lifted his wrist and looked at the time on his watch. It was 12:40. It turned out that he, the leader, had missed lunchtime due to being busy. He said to Lu Siyu, “Go find Zhu Xiao and ask him to help you contact the property to warm up your meal.”

With this problem solved, Song Wen turned around and instructed everyone to go downstairs, saying, “You’ve all worked hard, let’s eat. There are two small restaurants nearby. If you want to order online, come to me. Today, I’m treating everyone.”

Although crime scenes could be disgusting and bloody, these people were seasoned professionals who had witnessed even more gruesome scenes. As the saying goes, people are made of iron, and food is made of steel. The case must be solved, and the meal must be eaten.

They had to start working again in the afternoon. After going to the small restaurant, they also had to walk back. In addition, it was a rare occasion for Captain Song to treat everyone, so they all chose to eat at Hungry Now, lining up to order. In this line of work, the conditions were poor, and the pay was low. They faced many more challenging scenes throughout the year, sometimes buying a roasted sweet potato and squatting on the ground to eat. When the orders were almost done, Deputy Captain Fu Linjiang came over, “Hey, today is Lu Siyu’s first day here, and you let him do all the records? Aren’t you planning to teach him?”

Song Wen couldn’t stand Fu Linjiang being overly kind and treating everyone like mother hens. He said, “Newcomers need to be trained, and I find that you are paying special attention to him.”

Fu Linjiang defended himself, “No, I just feel that the kid came here alone; it’s not easy for him. We should take care of him.”

Song Wen was amused by him, “A 26-year-old rich second generation is considered a kid? Can’t you take care of me a bit?”

Fu Linjiang looked at Song Wen and said, “Captain Song, if you don’t squeeze us too hard, that would be great.”

TN:

People who always try so hard to be seen as the “nice guy” sometimes tend to rub me off wrong. Like why do you have to try so hard to show others you’re a good person unless you’re hiding something. Not that being kind is a wrong thing but there’s more who use their niceness to their advantage than out of their genuine kindness. But don’t mind me. I tend to be a little cynical and pessimistic borderline paranoid.

Lividity marks are bluish-purplish skin discoloration that appear after death. It is a sign of livor mortis and occurs when blood pools in the gravity dependent parts of the body and loss of blood circulation. The presence and display of lividity can assist forensic scientists to better understand the time and position of death, and the color of lividity can inform pathologists about the potential cause of death.